About Us
SmartSemi Engineering
SmartSemi Engineering is a technology and process improvement consulting firm that can help transition your business into its next phase. Our focus is on semiconductor design, development and Intellectual Property (IP) support, whether your products are chips or cores.
We specialize in transitioning companies from in-house prototyping to production and building capability to support high-volume manufacturing. If you are new to this space, we can help you evaluate the costs and risks, define a strategy, and put in place a path forward. We can provide a technical perspective on your Intellectual Property strategy or help you develop one.
We have experience with foundry technology and EDA tool flow selection and trade-offs. We can also help hire and setup a development team. If you have an established team and are looking to improve productivity and quality, we apply industry best practices to make it world class.
About the Founder
David Hansquine is a Technology Executive with over 20 years of experience providing hands-on engineering leadership developing and commercializing ASIC chips and semiconductor products. He has delivered hundreds of millions of devices with a focus on new markets. He has more than 20 patents with several in the pipeline.
He was Vice-President of Engineering at QUALCOMM, a leader in designing wireless chips and software, where he delivered numerous semiconductor System on Chip (SOC) products targeting mobile, datacenter, and automotive. He also worked as Vice-President of Engineering at GlobalFoundries, a US-based semiconductor manufacturer, developing novel technologies including Silicon Photonics targeting datacenter and networking.
Over the course of his career, David defined an Intellectual Property (IP) strategy for his research team, held key roles in various company Patent Review Boards and has participated as a technical witness in litigation. He has setup multiple engineering teams both domestically and internationally. David is committed to help transition your development team to meet the next set of challenges and growth.
Our Services
Technology Assessment & Deployment
Help client develop a technology strategy that will provide real impact on their semiconductor product goals.
- Assess technology landscape to highlight risks and opportunities for your business
- Review product roadmap and featureset including competitive analysis
- Assess available technology, foundry selection and 3rd party IP suitability for client's products & roadmap
- Create a technology roadmap aligned with your corporate strategy and an execution strategy to support the product roadmap
Improve Development Processes & Project Management
Evaluate client's ASIC development process and technology effectiveness to meet business and market goals.
- Review project development plans identifying resource gaps, budget needs, risks, and KPI's
- Apply industry best practices to drive productivity and on-time chip delivery
- Work with team to integrate improvements while providing temporary leadership help (Engineering VP or CTO) to cover organizational gaps or shortfalls
- Conduct periodic and milestone reviews while providing updates to senior management with transparency
Intellectual Property (IP) & Litigation Support
Provide technical support to client's counsel:
- Research and writing up arguments identifying infringement, claim construction, justifying non-infringement, arguments for invalidity, etc.
- Perform expert witness functions including research, interpreting patent claims, technical analysis, expert declarations and depositions
Provide an outsider's technical perspective on the client's semiconductor IP strategy:
- Review in-house patents, relevance and evaluate how to broaden their applicability
- Evaluate external patents, overlap and opportunities to complement patent portfolio
Semiconductor Industry Insight
For financial or investor community and companies seeking to enter this space:
- Available for board advisory roles
- Provide a deeper understanding of the semiconductor market, players and suppliers
- Provide an overview of the development processes, challenges, risks, and opportunities
- Explore future directions for the industry
Merger & Acquisition Assessment
Assist client with due diligence activities on prospective acquisition targets:
- Evaluate technology and IP portfolio to identify differentiation and competitive advantage
- Evaluate product roadmap and development processes
- Review and assess caliber and capabilities of employees
- Identify gaps, strengths, weaknesses with a plan to address
Build or Grow an Engineering Team
Work with client to form a development team:
- Identify suitable geographical location based on skillset, availability & cost
- Define organizational structure, titles and job specifications, then screen and interview candidates
- Define engineering development processes with metrics to measure success
- Align your development organization to deliver on the above in a cost-effective manner